Public Response to the Initiatives taken by Dte. Gen. I&P:
(Update till January 2014)

Public has responded very well to the Initiatives taken by the Directorate General of Immigration & Passports.

A total number of 1455 Emails received containing Complaints/Queries in January, 2014 which are attended/resolved.

27,543 Calls have been received/responded through Helpline 0800-34477 since its commencement.

40,2549 SMSs received for Checking Status of Passports since launching of this service on 12th October, 2013.

24,409 Online Passport Tracking System hits are received for Checking Passport Status since launching of this service on 18th December, 2013.

536 Complaints have been lodged through Online Complaint System through web since its launching on 26th October, 2013. 422 Responded/Resolved and rest are under process.

Rebuttal of Press News:
(THE DAWN)

JANUARY 3, 2014 (ISLAMABAD): With reference to the Letter to the Editor printed in The Dawn on January 3, 2014 that the directives of the interior minister about the enhancement of passports validity for a period of ten years, with an 80 percent increase in fees, an SMS service for tracking passports and home delivery service in six major cities has yet not been initiated. It is mentioned that the SMS service for tracking passports has already been launched on October 12, 2013 and publicized in the national dailies across Pakistan.

In addition, the enhancement of the validity of passports required extensive coordination with NADRA and up gradation of system software. The work on the enhancement of validity of passports was immediately started after the announcement in September and various technical issues were resolved in the meantime. This services has been operational since January 1, 2014. The detailed information can be attained from the website of www.dgip.gov.pk.

Moreover, the tenders for the home delivery have already been issued and opened which is under process. Tendering is a time taking process as it involves various steps, like, publishing of advertisement in the news papers, opening of technical and financial bids and their evaluation, award of contract etc. The service is expected to begin within a month. It is regrettable that the writer of The Dawn did not contact the Directorate General Immigration & Passports otherwise correct information could duly be shared with him.

Inauguration of Rawalpindi Passport Office:

DECEMBER 31, 2013 (ISLAMABAD): Minister for Interior Ch. Nisar Ali Khan inaugurated the new customized building of Regional Passport Office Rawalpindi in Ganjmandi morr near Westridge here today. The said passport office has been established with a cost of 47.9 million in relatively bigger vicinity for the ease of the public.

The jurisdiction of the RPO Rawalpindi includes all tehsils except Gujar Khan and Kahuta with an approximate population of 3.8 million. There are around 550 to 600 applicants in Rawalpindi every day. The new passport office is expected to provide a comfortable space to hundreds of visitors of Regional Passport Office Rawalpindi.
The Regional Passport Office Rawalpindi has two separate photo/token counters, two counters for biometric, four counters for data entry, one counter for black-list/ECL cases, three counters for interviews and three passport delivery counters separately; one for women and two for men. It is expected that all these facilities will help minimize the average processing time for each case.

Director General Immigration & Passports Sikader Sultan Raja earlier welcomed the minister in the Regional Passport Office Rawalpindi. The minister was briefed on various facilities available at the space.
On the occasion, Interior Minister Ch. Nisar Ali Khan appreciated the efforts of Directorate General Immigration & Passports for enabling a favorable and helpful environment for the general public.

It is pertinent to mention here that Directorate General Immigration & Passports has introduced several ground-breaking initiatives in the past few months which include SMS service and online system for tracking of passports, online complaint management system and helpline for passport applicants. Backlog of 800,000 cases of passports was also cleared during the past few months.

On the occasion Minister announced validity of passports for 10 years which shall start on 1st January 2014. He also announced establishment of Bank Counters inside Passport offices where bank branches are at a distance from passport offices.

10 years valid passports can also be issued, subject to appropriate fee deposit. Fee structure is mentioned as:

36 Pages Normal=Rs.5,400/- & Urgent=Rs.9,000/-.

72 Pages Normal=Rs.9,900/- & Urgent=Rs.16,200/-.

100 Pages Normal=Rs.10,800/- & Urgent=Rs.21,600/-.

NOTE:
* Passoprt having validity of 05 years cannot be converted into validity for 10 years.
* Children under 15 years of age will be issued Passport having 05 years validity.

Gratitude to Director General Immigration & Passports:

Rebuttal of Press News: 'The promise has been fulfilled'
(THE NATION)

DECEMBER 27, 2013 (ISLAMABAD): With reference to the story printed in The Nation on December 17, 2013 that the directives of the interior minister about the enhancement of passports validity for a period of ten years, an SMS service for tracking passports and home delivery service in six major cities has yet not been initiated. It is mentioned that the SMS service for tracking passports has already been launched and publicized in the national dailies across Pakistan. The detailed information can be attained from the website of www.dgip.gov.pk.

Moreover, the tenders for the home delivery have already been issued and opened which is under process. The service is expected to begin within a month. In addition, the enhancement of the validity of passports required extensive coordination with NADRA and upgradation of system software. The work on the enhancement of validity of passports was immediately started after the announcement in September and various technical issues were resolved in the meantime.

It is further stated that the teams of Directorate General Immigration & Passports are in the field who are busy in updating the system software all across Pakistan and foreign missions as well. It will be operational in the next week. It is regrettable that the scribe of The Nation did not contact the Directorate General Immigration & Passports otherwise correct information could duly be shared with him.

Procurement of Courier Services for Home Delivery of Machine Readable Passports in Pakistan:

Time Duration of Passport Delivery has been reduced:

On the orders of Minister of Interior, Dte. Gen. I&P took the challenge of early delivery of passports to its applicants. Taking this initiative for public welfare, now passport delivery Time Duration of

Normal application type has been reduced to 10 working days from 12 days,

and

Urgent application type has been reduced to 4 working days from 5 days.

In another step towards digitalization to facilitate passports seekers and in the light of the directions issued by Minister for Interior, Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, during his visit of the Directorate General Immigration and Passport, It has now launched a Short Message Service (SMS) for its Passports seekers. An individual desirous of knowing the status of processing of passport application, can now send SMS from hand set and will instantly get a response from the passport office indicating the status of processing of application for passport and date of dispatch of the passport in a unique box number together with the message for helpline 0800-34477 where from the passport is to be collected.

DG (I&P) has provided an online access of disseminating passport information through SMS for those applicants who could not get passport despite of frequent visits for last six months to various passport offices.

SMS Service has been initiated for welfare of the Passport seekers. This service will now help to eliminate the unnecessary delays, repeated visits to the passport Offices and the involvement of third parties i.e. agents, touts and money makers who had a reputation of fleecing money from the passport seekers.

Launching of SMS would definitely help department to rebuild its lost image through providing relief to all passport seekers to get the status of their passports without manual intervention. Commencement of SMS Service for passport seekers in Pakistan is a revolutionary step of DG (I&P) for the welfare of passport seekers who have no access and resources to visit passport Headquarter in Islamabad. Time is money and this facility will serve to save the time of the public and provide access to information at grass root level. Minister has formally inaugurated the launching of SMS Service on 12th of October, 2013.

Address of Minister of Interior to the Officers of Immigration & Passports, while his visit to the Dte. Gen. I&P on 17th of September, 2013.

Officers should go beyond the call of duty as it is sacred responsibility of all Government servents.

Merit is to be followed.

Fundamentals of good governance should be adopted to root out corruption.

Help Line:

The Dte. Gen. I&P has successfully launched the HELP LINE for public facilitation. Call Now on 0800-34477.

Machine Readable Visa:

The Directorate General of Immigration & Passports has successfully launched the system of issuing Machine Readable Visa to foreign nationals at Islamabad (DGI&P's Headquarter), Lahore (Garden Town), Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi (Saddar). The MRV system has been deployed within the Regional Passport Offices at Provincial Capitals in Pakistan.